Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus for drawing and displaying a virtual space image, a control method, and a storage medium storing a program.
Description of the Related Art
Recently, in the field of engineering and manufacturing, a reduction in period and cost of evaluation using a prototype has been demanded. A mixed reality (MR) system has been introduced for evaluating the ease of assembly and maintenance by means of engineering data such as shape and design created on a CAD (computer-aided design).
One example of the items of an evaluation made by using a mixed reality system is a check as to whether or not it is possible to perform work without interference of a tool with any part other than the target part. In a mixed reality system for such an evaluation, when a person who tries out the system moves a virtual object (e.g., tool) to cause interference with another virtual object (e.g., part), a function of offering the visual presentation of the region of interference in a highlighted manner is sometimes demanded. A known simple way to provide such highlighted presentation is to change the display color of the region of interference into a highlight color that has been set in advance. However, in this known method, there is problem that it is not possible to visually present the region of interference in a case where the region of interference is hidden behind a virtual object that blocks the line of sight between the eyepoint of the person trying out the system and the region of interference (line-of-sight blocking object).
To solve this problem, a method of, with a change in the display color of an interfering virtual object in its entirety, generating an image of the virtual object is disclosed in Patent Publication No. 4756899. In this method, different highlight colors have been set in advance for vertices of a virtual object, and, in the event of the occurrence of interference, the region of interference is visually presented by changing the color of the virtual object in its entirety into the highlight color preset for the vertex corresponding to the region of interference. Therefore, even in a case where the region of interference is invisible from the person trying out the system, as long as at least a part of the interfering virtual object is visible, it is possible to recognize the region of interference on the basis of the relation between each vertex and the corresponding highlight color.
In a mixed reality system, the following situation can be considered: virtual objects interfere with each other, and a part or a whole of the region of interference is hidden behind a line-of-sight blocking object and is therefore invisible from the eyepoint of a person who tries out the system.
In such a situation, with a change in the display color of the region of interference into the preset highlight color alone, it is difficult to offer the visual presentation of the region of interest to the person trying out the system.
The technique disclosed in Patent Publication No. 4756899 makes it possible to recognize the region of interference even if the region of interference is hidden, achieved by, as long as a part of the virtual object is visible, changing the display color of the virtual object in its entirety. However, nothing is disclosed in this publication about visualization of the region of interference itself. Moreover, if no part of the virtual object is visible, it is not possible to visually present the region of interest.